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With not much more than pride on the line, Ryan Villopoto marched into the season finale at Lake Elsinore and once again provided a show of dominant force. Sure, it’s no surprise to see RV at the top of the charts—he’s been there most of the year—but with a fastest time nearly two seconds faster than second place (Josh Grant), the unbridled speed shown by RV was even more impressive at Elsinore.

Let’s not let Villopoto's supremacy take anything away from Grant though. The oft-injured veteran finished the season healthy and back in the mix. He led the most laps he has all season at Elsinore and left it all on the track. In fact, he pushed so hard that he required an IV after the moto and had to miss moto 2 per AMA rules. Grant set the second fastest time of the day, which was better than 2012 450 Class Champion Ryan Dungey, who has occupied second on the charts most of the season.

It took RV until lap five—his first official lap as the leader—to get around Grant. Let’s take a look at how the champion made his way to the front.

Lap

Ryan Villopoto

Josh Grant

1

2:12.444

2:10.184

2

2:09.007

2:10.459

3

2:09.228

2:10.046

4

2:09.914

2:10.246

5

2:08.393

2:10.554

Lake Elsinore is one of the few tracks on the circuit where the first lap is officially recorded due to passing the finish line off the start. Grant used a fantastic jump off the gate to gain two seconds early on Villopoto, who was working his way around Justin Barcia. Once disposing of Barcia, RV dropped the hammer. By picking up a second or more in two of the next four laps, Villopoto went to the front, where he cruised to another moto win.

Late mistakes from Josh Grant cost him down the stretch as the ever-consistent Ryan Dungey made a late charge to secure second in the moto. Dungey officially was registered in second on lap 14. Let’s take a look at how he got there.

Lap

Ryan Dungey

Josh Grant

10

2:12.314

2:15.080

11

2:13.884

2:15.437

12

2:13.179

2:13.111

13

2:13.586

2:14.007

14

2:14.147

2:18.071

15

2:12.561

2:20.441

450 Moto 2

Lap Rank

Finish

Best Lap

In Lap

Avg Lap Time

Rider

1

1

2:08.336

5

2:11.713

Ryan Villopoto

2

2

2:09.876

4

2:12.823

Ryan Dungey

3

6

2:11.958

6

2:15.603

Tyla Rattray

4

3

2:12.221

3

2:14.518

Justin Barcia

5

4

2:12.524

9

2:14.761

Jake Weimer

6

8

2:12.936

5

2:16.402

Brettt Metcalfe

7

7

2:13.025

5

2:15.540

Weston Peick

8

5

2:13.079

9

2:15.317

Mike Alessi

9

10

2:13.606

3

2:17.572

Trey Canard

10

12

2:13.719

4

2:18.340

Andrew Short

Ryan Villopoto would once again set the fastest lap of the moto at over a second faster than Ryan Dungey. But the huge discrepancy from the first moto wasn’t as shining in the second moto—as Dungey was much closer to the pace RV was setting out front.

RV was out for blood early—picking up almost three seconds on Dungey in the first lap. Villopoto continued to charge, picking up nearly three seconds on Dungey over three consecutive laps (5-7). Dungey did fight back late in the race, but RV was on cruise control by then.

The old adage “if it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all” has clearly applied to Tyla Rattray over the course of the final two rounds. In his swan song race before heading back to Europe in 2014, Rattray was in the mix in moto 1 before suffering an ankle injury. He came back for moto 2 and cleary had the pace—setting the third fastest lap of the moto—but was slowed by the injury as his lap times dropped off late in the race.

Josh Grant set the second fastest lap in moto 1.Simon Cudby photo

250 ClassMoto 1

Lap Rank

Finish

Best Lap

In Lap

Avg Lap Time

Rider

1

2

2:10.029

7

2:12.521

Eli Tomac

2

1

2:10.478

6

2:11.922

Ken Roczen

3

33

2:11.576

7

2:15.974 (10 laps)

Blake Baggett

4

3

2:11.618

9

2:13.093

Jeremy Martin

5

4

2:11.648

3

2:13.347

Coober Webb

6

7

2:11.969

7

2:15.171

Kyle Cunningham

7

8

2:12.363

7

2:15.537

Justin Bogle

8

14

2:12.613

4

2:16.593

Adam Cianciarulo

9

11

2:12.665

12

2:16.271

Martin Davalos

10

5

2:12.672

12

2:14.629

Zach Osborne

One of the first things that stands out when looking at the fastest times from the first moto is just how fast the MyPlash/Metal Mulisha/Star Yamaha rookies Jeremy Martin and Cooper Webb were going. Their fastest times were beaten only by racers with some serious credentials. Eli Tomac is the newly crowned 250 National Champ, Ken Roczen is a former MX2 World Champ and Blake Baggett is the 2012 250 National Champ. When the checkered flag flew, the only two racers ahead of them were Roczen and Tomac, who will be on 450s next year. If you're Martin or Webb (or most anyone at Star Racing, for that matter), you've got to be feeling pretty good about next year!

We've seen Tomac get into second and run down Roczen for the lead multiple times this year, so when he blazed past Martin the crowd on hand braced themselves for another charge of death from the newly crowned champ. But Tomac wasn't able to close the gap. After the race Tomac mentioned that he wasn't quite feeling the flow of the Lake Elsinore track, but Roczen still deserves some serious credit for his performance. Check out how close his average time was to his fastest lap time; they're only about a second-and-a-half apart! That's amazing, especially considering that Roczen cruised the final two laps, setting times of 2:13.382 and 2:16.330. His consistent times indicate a flawless performance in which he was pushing the limit nearly the entire time. Check out the gap he was able to maintain over Tomac in the chart below.

Lap

Gap

7

12.875

8

12.149

9

12.232

10

11.055

11

11.564

12

12.552

13

11.953

14

12.757

15

12.530

16

11.528

A couple of big-time charges worth mentioning came from Kyle Cunningham and Blake Baggett. After getting a terrible start, Cunningham, who is suffering from a bulged disc in his back, completed the first lap in fifteenth place and went to work. Despite navigating heavy traffic, KC was able to set the sixth-fastest lap of the race, and when the roost settled, he'd worked his way up to seventh place. Cunningham has suffered from bad starts all summer, and as a result, he's had to put in quite a few of these come-from-behind rides. If he wants to duck less roost next year, he's going to have to figure out a way to get out of the gate a little quicker.

Blake Baggett also got a bad start, and at the conclusion of lap one he was sitting in a dismal twenty-second place. But the southern California Kid still had some fight left in him and by lap six he'd worked his way into tenth place, setting the third-fastest lap in the process. Unfortunately a crash on lap eight would cut the charge, and Baggett's moto, short. Had he not DNF'd the moto, it's likely he would have taken over third place in the points from Marvin Musquin, who had an off-day.

Eli Tomac was the fastest in both 250 motos.Simon Cudby photo

250 Moto 2

Lap Rank

Finish

Best Lap

In Lap

Avg Lap Time

Rider

1

1

2:11.709

7

2:14.260

Eli Tomac

2

2

2:11.731

6

2:13.520

Blake Baggett

3

4

2:12.499

8

2:15.505

Zach Osborne

4

32

2:12.887

5

2:14.996 (6 laps)

Jason Anderson

5

3

2:13.354

9

2:15.263

Cooper Webb

6

6

2:13.623

9

2:15.892

Wil Hahn

7

5

2:13.707

8

2:15.428

Jeremy Martin

8

9

2:13.870

4

2:16.588

Martin Davalos

9

7

2:14.023

6

2:16.406

Ken Roczen

10

8

2:14.137

6

2:17.182

Justin Hill

Since we talked about the impressive first-moto charges, we've got to mention Marvin Musquin's ride in moto two. The Red Bull KTM rider was in twenty-second place after one lap, and while he didn't set any blazing laps, he was consistently quick (eleven of sixteen laps were in the 2:15 and 2:16 range), which helped him swiftly improve his position. After winning battles with Cole Seely and Justin Bogle, Musquin would finish the final moto of the year in tenth place.

If you were watching Zach Osborne's status in this moto you may have noticed him drop several positions, only to come back strong in the second half and get them back. His lap times reflect his second-half surge, too. After clicking off laps in the 2:14, 2:13 and even 2:12 range, Osborne went 2:22.288, 2:17.501 and 2:15.984 on laps ten, eleven and twelve. With only four laps remaining in the final moto of the year in gnarly triple-digit heat, you might expect a rider to put it on cruise control, but not Osborne. The GEICO Honda rider reeled off four fast laps, with the fastest of them, a 2:12.976, coming on the final lap to finish fourth in the moto.

Speaking of nice recoveries, Cooper Webb had one too. After leading the first lap, Webb started fading and found himself in fourth on two separate occasions. He got a little help when Jason Anderson crashed out, but credit to Webb for regrouping and picking up more steam at the end. He set his fastest time on lap nine, and his final lap times were on par with his lap times at the beginning of the moto, which earned him third in the moto, and third overall. Nice way to close out the year!